About book The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful, And (HIV) Positive (2008)
Quick read about a young AfAm woman who contracted HIV in the early 2000's. It told the journey from her childhood, to the time she was diagnosed, and briefly worked through the subsequent five years following diagnosis. I didn't feel the book was overly full of HIV/AIDS facts, and I appreciated that she really opened up about her feelings: isolation, loneliness, anger, but mostly her compassion is what touched me the most. I didn't expect to get so drawn in to this autobiography of Marvelyn Brown, a beautiful black woman who at nineteen was diagnosed with HIV. She succinctly describes her life growing up, how she was more tomboy than academic and how her mother favored her younger sister over her. Then, as sexual encounters increased and she "fell in love" she then became sick and spent two weeks in the hospital in the 1990s where she was then diagnosed. At that point, HIV wasn't discussed much, especially in sex ed classes and Marvelyn then embarked on a journey of self-discovery which led her to some amazing places like Oprah Winfrey's couch, doing PSAs and speaking and creating her own organization to help un-stigmatize HIV and get the right information out to people. It's so accessible for students that I would not hesitate to give it to any student. While it doesn't give you the scientific blow-by-blow, it gives you enough information to empower all to seek sexual health services and be responsible.
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